Rader Extradited to Face Charges in Death of Family

A former Reseda car dealer charged with murdering a Northridge family missing since 1982 was extradited from Arizona Thursday for arraignment in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Los Angeles police detectives accompanied Harvey Rader, 47, a native of Great Britain, from Phoenix, where he served a sentence for attempting to obtain a U.S. passport in another person’s name.

Rader arrived at Los Angeles International Airport shortly before 4 p.m. and was booked into Parker Center Jail downtown at 5:30 p.m., Officer Don Lawrence said.

The district attorney’s office said Rader is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon on charges that he murdered Israeli immigrant Shlomo Salomon, his wife, Elaine, and their two children, Michalle, 15, and Mitchell, 9.

They disappeared from their Northridge home on Oct. 12, 1982, and all are presumed dead.

Rader was charged with killing the Salomons Sept. 2 by Deputy District Attorney Lonnie A. Felker, who said he had developed new evidence in the case.

Felker has conceded, however, that the case against Rader is not a strong one.

If convicted, Rader could be sentenced to death.

He also is a suspect, though not charged, in the disappearance and presumed killings of Peter and Joan Davis of Northridge in March, 1982, and a Burbank businessman, Ronald Adeeb, in January, 1982. Their bodies also have not been found.